Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Windsor West for starting us off this evening and for his incredibly difficult and hard work in achieving today's debate.
New Democrats are deeply concerned and troubled by the fact that, just south of us, American conservatives are yet again attacking Canadian industry. This person, Mr. Donald Trump, is someone who Canadians know all too well. He is like a scary movie. We have seen this scary movie before. He was president once already. In any good scary film that one watches a second time, one knows just when the scary scenes are and when to close one's eyes.
We have known for a long time who Mr. Trump is. We have known for a long time exactly what his intentions are and what he thinks about Canadians. He takes us for granted and kicks us when it is convenient.
Unfortunately, the Liberals and the Conservatives always bow down to him. That is the problem we are facing today. Consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have always been at the whim of America and its demands. We need the kind of Canada that demonstrates to our workers and our industries that we care about them and value their tremendous support, so much so that we would invest in them.
The member for Windsor West made it clear that the very serious issues at the border are man-made. They were made by the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Conservatives cut over a thousand CBSA workers, which was shameful, and today they are coming to this place saying that we need to be non-partisan now, after they already messed it up and broke the system. The Liberals inherited that system and found it convenient to just keep many of those aspects.
Canada, as a matter of fact, does not have an immense trade deficit with the United States. It is just not going to the right people. It is going to billionaires on Bay Street and Wall Street, and Canadians are always left behind.
We have some of the best labour and skills across the globe. My home province of Alberta has the best labour right across this country. They are skilled labourers who are doing the hard work every single day. They know, when they are drilling in our oil and energy sector, for example, that it is a tough job. They send all of that product over to the United States, and then we import the developed product, gasoline, and pay more for it because of it.
For a long time, Albertans have asked me, when I knock on doors, why we cannot produce these goods right here in Canada. They ask me why we cannot produce the things that make Canada great right here at home. New Democrats are the only ones who stand by our tremendous labourers here in Canada. We know their value. We are going to support them in their jobs. We are going to make sure that Mr. Trump knows exactly who he is messing with.
Canada accounts for a tremendous amount of trade with the United States, so much so that it relies on us. That means Americans are going to have to start paying a lot more for the goods that we make here in Canada, things like the products that go into building homes. Can members guess what that would mean for the American family that wants to buy a home? Donald Trump is prepared to increase the cost of their home. He is ready to increase the cost of groceries and gasoline too. For every single good, Donald Trump is prepared to make Americans pay more.
Canada has an opportunity here. We are an immensely courageous country, but also one that belongs to a globe that needs us. We know that. Canadian goods, services, jobs and products can go elsewhere. We need to show the United States, show Donald Trump, that our industries are not only the best industries that produce the best quality, but are also desired elsewhere. They are desired in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. They are desired right across the globe. Canadian-made products are the best products in the world. We need to diversify our trade. We have trade partners that so desperately want to see a Canadian trade agreement to bring our goods and services right to their doorstep.
However, we have been through the fight once already. We have been through what Trump tried in the past, and we have seen the record of the Liberals. We have seen them try over and over again to defend sectors, even against the Democrats, and we have seen it play out with softwood lumber and the very real and serious impacts related to that.
Canada can use tariffs, but we should not be using tariffs to instigate a trade war just to race to the bottom and make everybody pay. We should institute trade policies and tariffs that are very precise, that have a very important objective and that are used as part and parcel of a larger trade policy that looks at, for example, benefits to indigenous people, to our environment and to the care economy.
People need to know that when we use our economic might, we are using our economic strength to help regular, everyday people. That is why we have an economy. It is not to make more billionaires like Donald Trump even richer. It is not to serve Bay Street here in Canada just so it can continue to exploit labour elsewhere. No, Canadians put their hard-earned time and their blood, sweat and tears into the great products we make because they know that it is for their family and for our country, and for us to be able to share our tremendous wealth with all people who need it.
We have an ability in this country to end poverty, which is something New Democrats have always been consistent about. We know that if we use the tremendous power and wealth of our country, we can in fact eliminate child poverty. We can eliminate waiting lines at hospitals. We can build a social safety net such that no matter when someone falls down, and I say “when”, not “if”, they will get back up. That is the kind of Canada New Democrats believe in, and it starts with sound and strong trade policies.
When a country like the United States does not want to play fair with us, does not want fair trade, then we have to have the courage and the ability to make certain we are prepared as a country to defend our industries, defend our labour and look to the very beautiful and Canadian-made solutions we can develop right here at home. We can do that, and as a matter of fact we have done it in the past.
There was a time of hyperinstability at the end of World War II, and global free trade was at its limit, barely happening. However, Canada did not resign itself to being unable to support the war effort, unable to generate revenue and unable to generate good jobs. No, we did the exact opposite; we looked to our fellow neighbours at that time and we asked ourselves what we could do for each other. We sent a million men and women overseas to fight Nazi terrorism in Europe.
Here at home, everybody else went to work. We organized over 100 crown corporations. We organized our labour to produce some of the best steel the world had ever seen. We used our tremendous might as an industrial country to make things that had never been made before. Canada was an innovator. Canada achieved immense respect for our tremendous support for our industries.
The subsequent decades, especially the 1980s, would see the Liberals and Conservatives selling off as many public goods as possible, leaving us with nothing today. They sold everything. They speak about a balanced budget, but they do not know how to balance a budget. Do members know what they know how to do? They know how to sell Canadian assets.
I will give a good example: oil, right in my province of Alberta, right where the former prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, came from, a member of the Conservative Party who often says how great and powerful Alberta's energy sector is, and I agree. We have the best skilled labour and the best workers possible, but what Harper will not tell us is that he gambled our future in 2008. He sold Nexen to CNOOC, a Chinese-controlled corporation, in order to balance the budget. He still lost the election, but this is part and parcel of the kind of history we have to restore.
We need to set the record straight that New Democrats are the ones who protect labour, New Democrats are the ones who protect jobs and New Democrats will be the ones who stop Donald Trump and his ridiculous ploy to make Americans and Canadians pay. The world needs more Canada. The world needs more Canadian products. The world is ready for it, and New Democrats are ready too. We will find trade partners, diversify our trade and make sure that our jobs are protected.
